Wish fulfillment

OK, the weather mavens got it right this time—plenty o' rain, more-than-plenty o' wind. I got off lightly compared to some (who had whole trees fall on their houses). Still, it was exciting in a scary kinda way, especially when a large limb crashed onto the roof of the house next door with an alarming WHOMMMP sound; luckily, it did little if any damage. All I suffered was a power outage, and in that I was joined by nearly the whole town. Mine was off for 23 hours, and as of yesterday, some people still were in the dark. Luckily enough, the lights downtown stayed on (Downtown Business Assn clearly has pull with PG&E), so, since no electricity = no cooking for me, I headed down to Crepeville for dinner along with a whole lotta other people, there and at other restaurants, bookshops and whatever else was open and lit.

But it was dark, really dark, in the parts of town that didn't have power, and it was disorienting. You don't realize how much light is usually around, not just from street lights but from lights inside houses, or porch lights, or even traffic signals. And the cloud cover added to the sense of inkiness. Add the hazards of branches and other debris all over the sidewalks and in the streets, and you've got some perilous walking or driving conditions.

But the birds didn't seem to mind any of it. Despite 50 mph winds and horizontally falling rain, the house finches were at the feeder. Looked a bit bedraggled, mind you, but apparently unfazed. How strong they must be.

Surveying my deck yesterday, I discovered this souvenir the wind had left (look at the right side of the feeder):
Here's a shot of the limb that fell next door:
And here's where it came from: